Flashcards · 8192 · Topic 3

Families flashcards

24 cards on Topic 3, subtopics 3.3.1 to 3.3.6. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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Name the four functions of families in the specification: Sexual, reproductive, economic and educational.
What two basic functions did Parsons (1959) say every family keeps?: The primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities (giving and receiving emotional support). Critics say he idealised middle-class family life.
How do Marxists see the functions of the family?: The family serves capitalism: it reproduces the next generation of workers, passes on private property through inheritance, and acts as a unit of consumption.
How do feminists see the functions of the family?: The family reproduces patriarchy: women's unpaid domestic labour and emotional work benefit men.

Nuclear vs extended vs reconstituted family: Nuclear: parents and dependent children. Extended: nuclear family plus other relatives. Reconstituted (step): at least one partner has children from a previous relationship.
What is a beanpole family?: A long, thin family with several living generations but few members in each, caused by longer life expectancy and fewer children.
Name the Rapoports' (1982) five aspects of family diversity: Organisational (e.g. division of domestic labour), cultural (beliefs and values), class (resources), life course (stage in the family life cycle) and cohort (historical period).
Give three reasons for growing family diversity: Rising divorce rates, secularisation and changing attitudes, as well as women's employment, cohabitation and later marriage.

Joint vs segregated conjugal roles: Joint: partners share housework, childcare, decisions and leisure. Segregated: separate, traditional roles, e.g. male breadwinner and female homemaker.
How did Oakley (1982) define the conventional family?: Nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing the parenthood of one or more children. She examined the power of this idea and the strains of being conventional.
Dual burden vs triple shift: Dual burden: women doing paid work plus most of the housework. Triple shift: paid work, housework and emotion work.
Which issues affect conjugal role relationships today?: Decision making, money management, dual career families, child rearing and leisure activities.

What is the symmetrical family (Willmott and Young, 1973)?: A home-centred nuclear family in which spouses make similar contributions to running the household, e.g. shared chores and decisions. Based on a survey of nearly 2,000 people in and around London.
What is the principle of stratified diffusion?: Willmott and Young's theory that what happens at the top of the stratification system today will diffuse downwards tomorrow.
How have family relationships changed from pre-industrial to modern times?: From families as units of production with extended kin, to industrial nuclear families with segregated roles, to more child-centred families with more joint roles today.
Give one feminist criticism of the symmetrical family: Feminists found little evidence of real symmetry: women still did most of the housework and childcare.

What did Zaretsky (1976) argue about the family?: A Marxist view: capitalism creates an illusion that the private life of the family is separate from the economy. The family cushions but props up capitalism, and cannot meet people's needs.
What did Delphy and Leonard (1992) argue about the family?: A feminist view: the family is an economic system in which men, rather than capitalists as such, benefit from and exploit women's labour.
Name four criticisms of families in the specification: Isolation and unrealistic idealisation, loss of traditional functions, lack of contact with wider kin, the status and role of women, marital breakdown and dysfunctional families.
What is a dysfunctional family?: A family that fails to perform its functions properly, e.g. through abuse, neglect or conflict, which harms its members.

How did the Divorce Reform Act 1969 change divorce?: It allowed divorce on the ground of "irretrievable breakdown"; later reforms made divorce cheaper and simpler.
Give four reasons for the rise in divorce since 1945: Changes in the law, changes in social attitudes and values (less stigma), secularisation, and changes in the status of women in society.
What are the consequences of divorce for family structure?: More lone-parent families, mostly headed by women and linked to a higher risk of poverty, and more reconstituted families with step-relationships.
How might feminists and functionalists view rising divorce differently?: Feminists may see it as women escaping unequal or abusive marriages. Functionalists may see it as reflecting higher expectations of marriage, with remarriage showing marriage is still valued.